DESCRIPTION

Panels are curses(3X) windows with the added feature of
depth. Panel functions allow the use of stacked windows and ensure
the proper portions of each window and the curses stdscr window are
hidden or displayed when panels are added, moved, modified or removed.
The set of currently visible panels is the stack of panels. Thestdscr window is beneath all panels, and is not considered part
of the stack.

A window is associated with every panel. The panel routines enable
you to create, move, hide, and show panels, as well as position a
panel at any desired location in the stack.

Panel routines are a functional layer added to curses(3X), make only
high-level curses calls, and work anywhere terminfo curses does.

FUNCTIONS

new_panel(win)

allocates a PANEL structure, associates it withwin, places the panel on the top of the stack (causes it
to be displayed above any other panel) and returns a
pointer to the new panel.

update_panels()

refreshes the virtual screen to reflect the relations between the
panels in the stack, but does not call doupdate() to refresh the
physical screen. Use this function and not wrefresh or wnoutrefresh.
update_panels() may be called more than once before a call to
doupdate(), but doupdate() is the function responsible for updating
the physical screen.

del_panel(pan)

removes the given panel from the stack and deallocates thePANEL structure (but not its associated window).

hide_panel(pan)

removes the given panel from the panel stack and thus hides it from
view. The PANEL structure is not lost, merely removed from the stack.

panel_hidden(pan)

returns TRUE if the panel is in the panel stack,
FALSE if it is not.
If the panel is a null pointer, return ERR.

show_panel(pan)

makes a hidden panel visible by placing it on top of the panels in the
panel stack. See COMPATIBILITY below.

top_panel(pan)

puts the given visible panel on top of all panels in the stack. See
COMPATIBILITY below.

bottom_panel(pan)

puts panel at the bottom of all panels.

move_panel(pan,starty,startx)

moves the given panel window so that its upper-left corner is atstarty, startx. It does not change the position of the
panel in the stack. Be sure to use this function, not mvwin(),
to move a panel window.

replace_panel(pan,window)

replaces the current window of panel with window (useful, for
example if you want to resize a panel; if you’re using ncurses,
you can call replace_panel on the output of wresize(3X)).
It does not change the position of the panel in the stack.

panel_above(pan)

returns a pointer to the panel above pan. If the panel argument is(PANEL *)0, it returns a pointer to the bottom panel in the stack.

panel_below(pan)

returns a pointer to the panel just below pan. If the panel argument
is (PANEL *)0, it returns a pointer to the top panel in the stack.

set_panel_userptr(pan,ptr)

sets the panel’s user pointer.

panel_userptr(pan)

returns the user pointer for a given panel.

panel_window(pan)

returns a pointer to the window of the given panel.

DIAGNOSTICS

Each routine that returns a pointer returns NULL if an error
occurs. Each routine that returns an int value returns OK if it
executes successfully and ERR if not.

COMPATIBILITY

Reasonable care has been taken to ensure compatibility
with the native panel facility introduced in SVr3.2 (inspection of
the SVr4 manual pages suggests the programming interface is unchanged).
The PANEL data structures are merely similar. The programmer
is cautioned not to directly use PANEL fields.

The functions show_panel() and top_panel() are identical
in this implementation, and work equally well with displayed or hidden
panels. In the native System V implementation, show_panel() is
intended for making a hidden panel visible (at the top of the stack)
and top_panel() is intended for making an already-visible panel
move to the top of the stack. You are cautioned to use the correct
function to ensure compatibility with native panel libraries.

NOTE

In your library list, libpanel.a should be before libncurses.a; that is,
you want to say `-lpanel -lncurses’, not the other way around (which would
usually give a link-error).